Ramasamy: As D-Day fast approaches, Muhyiddin’s days are numbered

Ramasamy: As D-Day fast approaches, Muhyiddin’s days are numbered

By Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy



ARE we to be surprised that the PN Government is making serious efforts to “buy” opposition MPs to get its majority?

To date, there are no less than seven Opposition MPs who have been approached with rewards of positions and financial rewards to switch sides.

Whether such efforts will succeed or not remains to be seen.

But such overtures are nothing unique to the PN Government as they have happed in the past.

When PH was in power, Bersatu, under the former prime minister Mahathir Mohammed offered positions and financial inducements to bring Umno MPs with its fold.

It was successful to some extent.

Now Bersatu under Muhyiddin Yassin is using the same tactic. This time much more vigorously as the D-Day fast approaches.

This is due to the fact that Bersatu is a weak Malay political party without many MPs.

The need to buy MPs is pursued vigorously now than ever before because Muhyiddin has to prove the Government’s majority in September this year, as was promised to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong earlier this month.

As everyone knows, Muhyiddin has no majority, although he thinks he has.

He has been squeezed in the corner by the royal rebuke for not tabling the Emergency Ordinances in the Parliament.

Whether Muhyiddin likes it or not, he has to prove majority come September. However, this is easier said than done.

The question is: how is he going to prove his majority?

I don’t think opposition MPs are going to flock en bloc to save the PN Government or to save Muhyiddin.

There is no love lost between the PN Government and the opposition.

Whatever goodwill that existed between members across party lines must have evaporated with the “Sheraton Move”. This infamous move triggered deep political divisions.

So there is one thing left for Muhyiddin to do: buy as many MPs as possible to ensure majority.

In fact Muhyiddin became the prime minister without majority support on the basis that the Agong believed that he had commanded a majority.

The PN Government was in fact a minority government from the beginning.

Nothing has changed for Muhyiddin.

However, his recent unpleasant relationship with the Agong has somewhat reversed matters to his disadvantage.

Now he has no choice, pandemic or not, to prove his majority in the Parliament.

The recent drama of 21 MPs led by Ismail Sabri does little to allay the fears that Muhyiddin has the majority.

This cheap political drama had the opposite effect of affirming that Muhyiddin has no majority at all. The political situation is one of sheer desperation.

This means that Muhyiddin must prove his majority by hook or crook, which is the reason why the PN political machinery seems well-oiled to get as many Opposition MPs to the side of the Government.

Using clandestine messengers, selected Opposition MPs have been promised ministerial positions and financial rewards to support the government of Muhyiddin.

Whether this will happen or not remains to be seen, but serious efforts are underway to buy the MPs.

However, the political situation today under the perennial assault of the pandemic might be different to the days of the “Sheraton Move”.

While the “Sheraton Move” provided the motivation for the crossover of MPs from Umno/BN under the rhetoric of Malay-only government, the present circumstances are different.

Given the abject failure of the Government to resolve both the health problems related to the pandemic and the sorry state of the economy, PN Government has nothing to fall on.

Even the racial and religious rhetoric employed earlier has no credibility as the Government is fast moving towards a total collapse.

PAS, the firebrand Islamic Party, is in a total disarray. It finds it difficult to shore up support for Muhyiddin by using religion.

While it is difficult to completely write off Muhyiddin, his options are limited. In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic has made things difficult for him re-engineer support for him. – Aug 9, 2021


Ramasamy Palanisamy is the state assemblyperson for Perai. He is also deputy chief minister II of Penang.